A Wandering Mind
by Reiji Neko Mitsukai
Summary: Set in the Freeza Wars timeline Dua reflects back to the day they lost their world and loved ones to Freeza. R&R please


A Wandering Mind  
  
As I lay here, waiting for sleep to overcome me, I cannot help but to think about our current situation. These past few months have been HFIL. I can hear everyone's breathing, and Gohan twitching in his sleeping bag. 'Must be a strong twitch,' I think to myself. Piccolo keeps a strong hold on Gohan at nights. It is almost ironic, how Piccolo lost his son and Gohan lost his father on the same day. They already had a close friendship, now they were inseparable. I try to open my eyes and look at the two, but to no avail. The forest was too dark. I sigh and close my eyes again. A faint call runs though the darkness. "Dua?" At first, it sounds like my brother, but then I realize who it is. "Yes, Krillin?" "I-I'd like to thank you, for saving my life, for what it's worth, anyway." "It was no problem. How is your arm feeling?" "What's left of it, fine. I think it's starting to heal." "Glad to hear it. I will see you in the morning." "Night." "Goodnight." Krillin fell silent again. I guess he fell asleep. As the silence once again cloaks the dark forest, I cannot help but to let my mind wander. I remember it; how this war started, like it was yesterday. Gohan and Future Troana had gone with me to train with Piccolo. After an hour of training, we heard a small explosion. Piccolo was the first one to hear it. He stopped and turned to look at the source. "What is it?" asked Troana. "I heard something. Sounded like an explosion." We all stilled, not held, but stilled our breath for a few minutes. Then another explosion, this one much closer. The ground shook beneath our feet. We could hear screams of people close by. All four of us flew off towards where we heard the fist explosion. We stopped when Korin's Tower came into view. We looked up. Korin's place was billowing smoke. Up even further, Dende's Place, where Piccolo had left Raykon, was also billowing smoke. Gohan gasped. "Oh no!" We flew up, stopping at Korin's. We landed, which was a little difficult with the smoke in the air. We split up, Troana and Gohan searched Korin's place, and Piccolo and I searched Dende's. As we flew up to Dende's, Piccolo and I, I knew why he wanted to search Dende's. He wanted to find Raykon. When we landed, a breeze started to gently blow, causing Piccolo's cape to sway in the breeze. Dende's place was destroyed. It looked worse than it had during the fight with Garlic Jr. We carefully walked into the ruble. There was hardly a wall standing. "This way." Piccolo headed towards to our left. I carefully followed him. He must have heard something, because the next second he was off running. I tried my best to follow him. I had nearly lost him, then I saw a flash of green and I followed pursuit. I managed to catch up with him to see him gently pick up a small green figure. I stood silent. Piccolo had found Raykon. A closer look revealed the many purple smudges on Raykon's clothes and skin. Raykon was injured, badly. I watched quietly as Piccolo carefully removed his cape and wrapped the little Namek in it, to keep him warm. The little bundle coughed to life and Piccolo carefully held him in the crook of an arm. More coughs, a tiny "Daddy," and more coughs. Piccolo silenced his offspring with a quiet "Shh." Still on his knees from picking up his now nearly dead son, Piccolo's already dark eyes darkened even more in worry as he looked down upon the bundle in his arms. Raykon looked up at him, a small smile on his face and eyes clouding over as death overtook him. Piccolo carefully wiped away the line of purple blood running from the corner of Raykon's mouth. "Daddy, you came…" His sentence broke up with coughs. "Quiet, save your energy." With his last amount of strength, Raykon managed to crawl out of Piccolo's cape and jumped high enough to wrap his arms around Piccolo's neck in a hug. At first, Piccolo was surprised and did not know how to react. Then he gave Raykon a small hug in return. Then, in words I could hardly hear, Raykon whispered, "I love you, daddy." Piccolo could do nothing as his offspring's, no, his son's life slowly slipped away. Raykon's grip slacked and his eyes closed for the last time. Piccolo was helpless as Raykon went limp and, with a final breath, a single tear rolled down his cheek, dropped, and landed on Piccolo's hand. Piccolo carefully re- wrapped his deceased son in his cape and slowly got up. I kept silent throughout the entire thing; I know whoever had done this would pay, Piccolo would make sure of that.  
  
We searched the remains of Dende's place, Piccolo never letting go of Raykon. We had found Dende, or at least what was left of him. It was obvious that whoever attacked the tower wanted Dende out of the way. "He didn't even stand a chance." I was not sure if Piccolo was talking about Dende or Raykon. After another search, we found the Dragon Balls, all stone. Mr. Popo was nowhere to be found. When we walked out of the remains, Gohan and Troana had flown up from Korin's Place. They looked questioningly at the bundle in Piccolo's hands, then looked at me. I just looked away like I could not say in front of Piccolo. Both Gohan ad Troana immediately understood and their expressions softened. "Piccolo, I'm so sorry…" Troana's words were cut off as everyone's head turned towards the direction of two, no, three Kis, all coming our way. One was weak, not fading, but weak. I could identify Krillin and Chiaotzu, but the third was too low for me to recognize. We waited, tense, wondering who the third approacher was. A few minutes later, Krillin and Chiaotzu appeared, assisting an injured Tien. Troana and I jogged over to help them, while Gohan stayed with Piccolo. We carefully helped Tien down, who was clutching his arm. One leg was injured, the green cloth of his clothes stained with red streaks. The arm he was clutching was worse; it was nearly dripping. "What happened?" asked Troana. "Some kind of ship attacked Master Roshi's, just blew it up. I didn't get a good look at the ship though," Krillin explained. "Troana, were there any survivors at Korin's?" I asked. Troana shook her head. "No. Not even a sensu bean. What about Dende?" I just shook my head. It was now Piccolo spoke up. "We heard two explosions, the second one was closer." "We should check them out," said Gohan. Chiaotzu and Gohan supported Tien's left side while Krillin and I supported his right side. Slowly we flew down and searched the city for the other explosions. To our surprise, two other buildings were pouring smoke. One was in the forest. "That's our house!" cried Troana. "Oh no! Mom! Dad!" Gohan wanted so much to fly down beside his sister, and get back to his now destroyed home as fast as he could. I knew how he felt. I too wanted to let go of Tien, and fly as fast as I could to search for my siblings, and hope they were still alive. Yet, I sensed no Ki in the remains of the house. No one. Not even Goku. When we did land, Troana had already run into the ruble. We carefully helped Tien to the ground and Gohan and I followed her. It was still quite smoky, making it hard to see. A shrill cry of "Dad! NO!" guided me to where Gohan was. I ran towards the sound, not knowing what I would find. What I did find, tough, apparently was too much for Gohan to take. Goku's back was resting against the remains of a wall; his head tilted at an odd angle. One hand was on his stomach, the red stain still fresh. His eyes were closed, his breathing nonexistent. Gohan burst into tears, and wrapped his arms around Goku, not caring that he was not alive. "Daddy… no…." Gohan's sobbing was soon drowned out by the piercing wail of sirens. After nearly a minute, I walked over to where Gohan was grieving and picked up Goku, pulling him from Gohan's grasp. Gohan gave no effort to get up. With one arm under Goku's knees and the other holding his shoulders, I carried him out of the remains of his home. As I walked, my mind was unable to comprehend reality. I watched as I walked, Goku's hair waving in the breeze. I owed him, so much, I owed him my life. Now, as Troana jogged up beside me, and told me there were no survivors, my mind was racing. He brought me in when I had no place to go. I vowed I would repay him, somehow. As Goku's hand slipped off his stomach and hangs, waving in my stride, three words replayed in my mind: I failed him. I failed Goku and his family. Gohan, Piccolo, Raykon, Dende, Krillin, Tein, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, my mother, my father, my siblings, my comrades. I failed them all. As soon as I was a few feet away from the ruble, I no longer had the will to walk. I fell to my knees, Goku still in my arms. My head bowed over Goku's body and my eyes shut. It was my fault. It was my incompetence that had led to Goku, Dende, Raykon, Goten, Chibi Troana, Chichi, my brother, my sister, my mother, and my father's death. It was all my fault. With a cry, my head raised up to the sky, eyes barely open. My cry escalated to a scream. My hair turned a nearly golden yellow and stood nearly straight up. As a SuperSayian, I powered up still, the lose dirt and dust blowing up and away. 'You will never amount to anything…' 'Freaks never do anything right…' 'You do not deserve this mission…' 'You will never amount to anything…' 'Freaks never do anything right…' 'You do not deserve this mission…' 'You will never amount to anything…' "NO! IT IS NOT TRUE!" My screams increased and so did my power. But my energy supply was drained. I powered down and my hair returned to normal. I dropped Goku and fell to my side. As I lost conscienceless, I though I hard someone cry out my name, then blackness overtook me.  
  
My conciseness returned to me with the slap of a rough hand across my face. I opened my eyes to see Vegeta standing in front of me, arms folded across his chest. The usual scowl was on his face. His clothes were torn, much like the way Goku's had been. I looked around and saw we that we were in front of Capsule Corp. Capsule Corp. itself was reduced to a pile of ruble. Troana was carrying Goku, similar to the way I had. Piccolo still carried Raykon. Tien was now standing, although he was leaning slightly to one side. Chiaotzu was standing next to him. Krillin was standing next to me, while Gohan stood beside him. Gohan had stopped crying, but his cheeks were still wet. My back was resting against what was left of a tree. I slowly got to my feet. "What will we do?" asked Krillin. "I mean, we're the only Z- Fighters left." "We have other business to do first," said Troana, looking at her father's still form.  
  
We managed to find a roughly clear spot in the forest to put them. We blasted their gravestones form rock, and blasting their names and the year into the stone. Gohan and Troana made Goku, Chichi, Goten, and Chibi Troana's gravestones. Gohan blasted on appropriate sized hole into the ground and Troana set Goku into the grave. They started to replace the dirt. At first it was just the two of them, then I joined in and Krillin started, followed by Tien and Chiaotzu. Piccolo and Vegeta stayed to the side. Once the grave was filled, Gou's gravestone was pressed into the ground so it was standing up, right at the head of the grave. After Goku's grave was finished, Piccolo blasted a smaller sized gravestone and carved Raykon's name into it. Once it was finished, he blasted a grave big enough for Raykon's form. Piccolo alone carefully set his son into the grave and he alone buried Raykon, still wrapped in his father's cape. Once the last handful of dirt was replaced, Piccolo took one more look at the fresh grave, then walked to the edge of the clearing, leaned against the tree, and stared out into the forest. Both Gohan and I knew Piccolo wasn't the kind to express his feelings openly. Troana flew off, probably to re- search the remains of her home. I followed her, to make sure she stayed safe. I could sense that Gohan was following us. Troana wasted no time when she landed. She ran into the still smoking ruble and Gohan and I landed. After waiting for a few minutes, we hard a small scream come from Troana. We ran in to find her. We found her on her knees, just staring at the ground. "Troana? What is it?" Gohan ran over to his sister, only to stop and stare along with his sister. I jogged over to them, and stopped as I saw what they saw: Chibi Troana and Goten- or at least what was left of them. There was nothing below the waist. After we recovered, I got up and started to walk away. Troana got up. "Wait, Dua, where are you going?" I stopped and turned to look at her. "I am going to look for any others. You two can take them back." As I turned away, I could feel Troana and Gohan take off. I was not sure if they took the bodies with them. I searched the rest of the remains, with no results. I quickly flew over to Dende's and took what was left of him back with me. When I got back, 5 more gravestones were in place: Bulma, Trunks, Chichi, Goten, and Chibi Troana. Krillin had just finished blasting Dende's gravestone when I landed. He blew an appropriate sized hole and carefully laid Dende down. We both started to bury him, then Gohan joined. Once it was done, I slowly got up. I know it was my turn, but I was trying to stall. I know my siblings were dead, but admitting it was true was the difficult part. I blasted two gravestones and carved their names into them. After pushing them into the ground, we heard a voice come from the sky above: "People of Earth, your planet is now property of Lord Freeza. Bow to him, or be destroyed."  
  
As my mind returns to the present, I remember how hard we fought to keep the earth free. Tien tried to help us as much as he could. Somehow, Freeza's men were stronger, faster, and more powerful than before. We had no chance. They hit too hard too fast. A military squadron showed up; tanks, machine guns, everything. About three survived. We all bled that day, but Krillin suffered the most damaging physical injury. He was distracted when one of Freeza's men shot a large blast at him. E managed to pull him partially out of the way, but I was too slow. Once the light faded, half of Krillin's left arm was gone. We retreated to the forest, the only safe place left. Krillin's arm was bleeding profusely. I was nearly ten minutes later military soldiers and a Medic had found us in the forest. He bandaged Krillin's arm and they lead us to a hidden military base. I think I frightened the soldiers that saw me. They treated our wounds and gave us new clothes. Our new clothes were similar to the ones we had previously, only these were camouflage. The general said they would help us hide in the forest better. Vegeta did not like the new coloring, but he agreed to wear it. "We'll be sending troops into the forest with supplies for you" said the General. "The first one will come in one week, the rest will come once a month." We returned to the forest with new hopes. I carefully touched the bandage on my neck., a wound I acquired during our fight. It was about this time Vegeta spoke up. "Since none of you have leading skills, I will." Everyone looked at him with a look that said "No way." "Nothing personal, Vegeta, but I do not think we would feel comfortable wit you leading," I said. "Well whether you like it or not, I'm still leading." I turned around to walk to the graves. "It's not my fault you and your siblings are naturally born freaks." Vegeta's words made me stop. It was pure fury and rage that made me turn around. My anger fueled my voice. "IF YOU WANT TO BE LEADER, FINE! BE LEADER! BUT I REFUSE TO FOLLOW ORDERS FROM A JERK THAT THINKS HE CAN BOSS ME AROUND!" A fistfight occurred shortly afterwards with Vegeta saying "I'll show you a jerk, you freak!" The fight consisted of kicking, punching, biting, growling, yelling, screaming, scratching, and the occasional war cry. Only after Troana, Krillin, and Chiaoutzu held me back and Tien, Gohan, and Piccolo held Vegeta back did the fight stop. The bandage on my neck was ripped off and the wound exposed.  
  
As I roll over in my sleeping bag, I hear someone-Vegeta? Krillin? Tien? - murmur something in their sleep. I listen, and hear Tein murmur "Chiaoutzu…" in his sleep. We had lost Chiaoutzu recently. It all started when we found out Freeza was building a base not too far form the forest. It was too close. If the base were kept there, he would have started tearing down the forest. That base had to be destroyed. Thanks to Piccolo sensitive Namek hearing, we learned the explosive were kept with the weapons, thanks to limited storage space. We knew where the explosives were held, but we did not have a way to get a blast big enough to set off the explosives. If one of us were to fly into the base and shoot a Ki blast at the building, Freeza's men's Scouters would detect us and we would be shot down before we could fire the blast. There was only one option left: Suicide mission. The only way we could set off the explosives was to fly directly into the building and set them off while inside. The resulting explosion would be too big for one of Freeza's men to survive, much less one of us. "It's either one or all," said Tien. "Either one dies or we all die." "That is pretty much the extent of it." I replied. "The question is: who?" asked Troana. Piccolo and Gohan looked at each other. If one of the two volunteered, the other would surely go too. If one of them was going to die, he would not die alone. "I will." All our heads turned to look at the small form standing next to Tien. "Chiaoutzu!" Tien protested. "You can't, you'll be killed!" "If anyone should do it, it's me. I'll be harder to hit because I'm small." "But…" "Besides," Chiaoutzu smiled for the first time in weeks with sad eyes. "I'm not that good of a fighter. I'll just get in the way." "I'm going with you." "No, Tien. You're a good fighter, they need you." I spoke up. "We need to keep the casualty number down. We cannot wish anyone back." We all stood silent for a very tense moment. Chiaoutzu was making a stand, and he was going to fulfill this mission. "You are aware that we need to destroy that base as soon as possible, right?" Chiaoutzu nodded. "I'm ready." We headed out towards the base, Chiaoutzu riding on Tien's shoulders for the last time. Once we reached the edge of the forest, the base came into sight. "Hey Chiaoutzu, say hi to Goku for us, OK?" Chiaoutzu nodded, and, with a final wave, flew off towards the base. We watched from the edge of the forest. As soon as Chiaoutzu neared the base, Ki blasts shot up from the base towards him. He weaved around the blasts, then flew headfirst into the base. He flew into the building through a window and disappeared. A few seconds later, the building exploded. The explosion was huge; it engulfed the entire base. The light was so intense, we had to shield our eyes from the light. When the light faded, the only thing left of the base was a pile of ash. Tien looked near tears.  
  
We know he is out there. Sleeping in a warm bed while we are reduced to sleeping bags on the cold ground. We will get him, oh yes, we will. He will pay for all the pain he has caused us. Freeza reign will end. Oh yes. Very soon. 


End file.
